This invention relates to an electrical connector adapted to receive a thin card, such as an IC card, which is inserted into the electrical connector to be connected thereto.
An existing electrical connector of the type comprises a plurality of conductive contacts, an insulator holding the contacts, a conductive cover member attached to the insulator, and a plurality of conductive holddowns held by the insulator.
The insulator is adapted to be mounted on a printed circuit board. The insulator has a base portion and a pair of side wall portions standing up from the base portion. Each of the base portion and the side wall portions of the insulator has a thin flat-plate shape.
The cover member has a cover main plate portion having a flat plate shape and faced to the base portion of the insulator, a pair of cover side plate portions extending from opposite sides of the cover main plate portion to face outer surfaces of the side wall portions of the insulator, respectively, and a plurality of pressing spring portions formed on the cover side plate portions, respectively. The pressing spring portions are formed on the cover side plate portions in one-to-one correspondence to the holddowns.
Each of the holddowns has a holding portion held by each of the side wall portions of the insulator, and a connecting portion to be connected by soldering to a ground conductor portion formed on the printed circuit board.
The cover member and the ground conductor portion of the printed circuit board are connected through the holddowns by pressing the pressing spring portions to the holddowns. Each of the contacts has a terminal portion to be connected by soldering to a signal conductor portion of the printed circuit board.
As described above, the holddowns are pressed by the pressing spring portions of the cover member. Therefore, a whole of the insulator including the base portion and the side wall portions each of which has a thin flat-plate shape may be deformed under a load exerted by the pressing force.
In particular, the insulator made of a resin material and having a thin flat-plate shape is significantly decreased in rigidity if a reflow temperature for soldering is high.
In case where the insulator is pressed by the pressing spring portions and largely deformed, the flatness in arrangement of the terminal portions of the contacts is impaired. In this event, the terminal portions can not be soldered to the signal conductor portion formed on the printed circuit board. Thus, connection is unsuccessful when the electrical connector is mounted to the printed circuit board.
Japanese Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. H8-171971 discloses an IC socket in which a seating member of a cover stopper formed on a socket body is soldered to a conductive pattern of a printed wiring board.
Japanese Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. H09-289061 discloses an electrical connector in which a holddown for fixing a housing onto a circuit board is connected to a ground pattern of the circuit board.
Japanese Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. H11-31556 discloses a PC card connector in which a cover is connected to a ground pattern of a mounting substrate.
However, none of the above-mentioned publications teaches a countermeasure for preventing the base portion and the side wall portions of a thin flat-plate shape from being deformed under the load by the pressing force of the pressing spring portions.